The father of a man who was freed on appeal after serving 27 years for murder was today appearing before a court accused of indecently assaulting six girls and women.

Ray Downing, 68, of Bakewell, Derbyshire, is alleged to have carried out 15 separate attacks between December 2000 and February this year. He is due to enter pleas to the charges, which relate to the indecent assault of three girls and three women, at a hearing today at Derby Crown Court.

Mr Downing campaigned for years for the release of son Stephen, whose murder conviction was overturned on a technicality by Court of Appeal judges last year.

Stephen had been found guilty of killing typist Wendy Sewell in Bakewell in 1973.

A new police inquiry into the murder, which concluded earlier this year, identified Stephen as the only suspect for the crime.